Ashley Lopez
Ashley Lopez joined KUT in January 2016. She covers politics and health care, and is part of the NPR-Kaiser Health News reporting collaborative. Previously she worked as a reporter at public radio stations in Louisville, Ky.; Miami and Fort Myers, Fla., where she won a National Edward R. Murrow Award.
Ashley was also part of NPR’s Political Reporting Partnership during the 2016 presidential election. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Millions of dollars are flowing into state legislative races. Redistricting and the coronavirus are expected to be top of the policy agenda in 2021 and party control could mean everything.
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A series of efforts by Texas Republicans to make access to voting more difficult in the final stretch of the fall campaign comes as the party's lock on the state's politics is getting looser.
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Gov. Greg Abbott ordered order a limit to the number of places where voters can hand deliver mail-in ballots. Some county officials worry it will lead to confusion and voter suppression.
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The coronavirus pandemic has made some past polling locations, like grocery stores and nursing homes, less appealing this year. So state officials are searching elsewhere.
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Nearly 700,000 Texans have lost health insurance during the pandemic, and the state already had more uninsured people than any other. Many Texans with COVID-19 symptoms hesitate to seek treatment.
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Texas has the most uninsured people in the U.S. – close to 20% of its population. They face a lot of unknowns about how to get and pay for health care if infected. Texas hospitals are affected, too.
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Even as many other states expand mail-in voting due to the pandemic, Texas officials say they may prosecute voters who ask for an absentee ballot because they're scared of going to the polls.
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An estimated 860,000 people were set to become citizens this year — with many also expected to become first-time voters. But the pandemic has put a temporary halt to naturalization ceremonies.
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Texas has one of the strictest vote-by-mail programs in the country. Democrats have sued, saying such rules don't work during a public health emergency.
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For Texas Democrats, the state's Super Tuesday primary could help define the shape of a party that's on the rise after more than two decades of being shut out of power.